Kārlis Ulmanis monument | Kārļa Ulmaņa piemineklis

Exactly 79 years ago, on 15th May 1934, Latvia's back-then prime minister Kārlis Ulmanis succesfully organized an overturn, turning Latvia from democratic to authoritarian country. He abolished parliament and started to personally lead the country as a Prime minister and since 1936 also as a president. The overturn was bloodless, noone was shot or injured, though several hundreds of politicians got imprisoned for a few months. From today's perspective one can judge differently this overturn, but the fact remains - in Ulmanis time (from 1934 until Soviet occupation at 1940) Latvia developed rapidly and "Ulmanis time" rests in people's memory as the best years in first Independence time.